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Building the Canopy
While I was building the canopy, I ordered my lights from Marine Depot (who I recommend highly.) As I mentioned earlier, I choose the dual 175 PFO metal halide unit with 12000K sunburst bulbs. Also, I stopped down at my LFS and picked up the Coralife NO bulbs and ballasts. This is where I find out that the 48" bulbs will not fit in my 48" hood, due to poor design on my part. With the end caps, the bulbs are longer than the 48.75" I allowed for them. (Helpful hint: The four steps to building are measure, measure, measure, build). So, I returned the 48s and got 36s. It is OK, as I only wanted to supplement actinics for dawn/dusk use anyway.
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Copyright © 1999-2000, Scott Brown, except as otherwise noted. All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced, in part, or in full, without the express written consent of the copyright holder. |
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I
needed to build a canopy to match the stand, so I broke out my ruler
and made a run to Home Depot.
After many trails, tribulations, and design iterations, I decided on
a flip-top unit, dual fan cooled in the back. 
When
the PFO lights arrived, I mounted them into the hood, and then mounted
the NO within the reflectors for the MH. Notice in the photo on the
right that the entire inside is painted white. That fact, plus the hi-tech
reflectors will help to put as much light in the tank as possible. Sure
there are other reflector materials, this is just the one I chose.
With
the lights mounted, it was time to put the canopy on the tank. I got
it installed, laced up the Coralife ballast and fired it up. All systems
were a go. No I can move on to the live rock.